During military operations, it is necessary to neutralize mines. A mine can be neutralized by causing an explosion above the mine. This explosion will create energy waves which detonate the mine. An explosive charge can be placed above each individual mine. However, individually exploding each mine in a mine field would be a slow process and would require knowledge of the precise location of each mine. Large quantities of explosives may be spread over a mine field to quickly detonate all mines. This has the advantage of decreasing the length of time required for the operation, but is only effective with mines which are susceptible to initiation from a single, short duration, pressure pulse. Deeply buried mines or mines insensitive to pressure pulses could not be neutralized by this method.